Rolling sheets



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sept'. 22, 1931.

m. Q O

NN. ANN

Sept 22, 1931- J. KENNEDY 1,824,486

` ROLLING SHEET Filed-Jan. 19. 192s 2 sheets-sheet 2 INVENTOR m' workingconditions because of the heat whichl Patented Sept.` 2v2, 1931 UNITEDSTATES JULIAN -KEN' N EDY; OF PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA ROLLING SHEETSApplication led January 19, 1929. Serial No. 338,633.

This invention relates tothe rolling of sheets and provides an improvedprocess and apparatus whereby a highk quality product may be producedwith relatively low labor cost and upon a low capital investment.

In the ordinary method of rolling sheets a roller gi'asps a sheet barwith a pair of tongs and feeds it between the rolls ,of the mill. As itissues a catcher grasps it with another pair/ of tongs and lifts it overthe top roll of the mill so that the roller can grasp it with his tongsto again feed it between tlie rolls. A. roller boy operates the screwdowns between passes. After the sheet bar has been subjected to a numberof passes,

say four, the partly formed sheets are paired and subjected to furtherrolling. This process is slow and al great deal of labor is involved.The task of catching the sheets and lifting them back over the top rollis -eX- ceedingly heavy work and is done under bad is radiated, not onlyfrom the material but also from the rolls themselves.

Various methods have been proposed for overcoming these difficulties. Ithas been attempted to4 place mills in a line and to auto.

matically feed the material'from one pass to the next. These projectshave been failures. The material as it exists between passes is not of acharacter to be handled by fully automatic machinery. If the sheets arenot properly squared as they enter a pass the product ofthe next rollingis not a rectangular sheet but is diamond shaped. There is always dangerof a sheet edge turning up or down and these and many other conditions`rencountered in practical operation have made the proposed arrangementsabove described impractical. The so-called strip-sheet method which hasrecently come into use requires a Very high capital investment and thereare limitations on the thinness to which the material can becontinuously rolled.

I provide for passing the material through successive stands.mechanically supporting the material between stands. the material beingfree of one Istand before entering the succeeding stand, and guiding thematerial into the stands by hand. Preferably means is provided wherebythe workman may stand in substantial `alinement with the line of travelof the material, and for this purpose I provide in the preferred form ofmy invention a platform overlying the table which supports the materialbetween roll stands. This platform is preferably cooled and additionalprovision in the way of shields-is lrlnade for protecting theworkmanfrom the 6D eat.

Stops are preferably provided in the line of travel of the material sothat its movement is checked before it enters a mill stand, and theworkman has an opportunity to square it up. By reason of the fact thatthe workman is standing in the line of travel of the material,v he isable to accurately guide it between the rolls with a minimum of effort.The sheet bars may weigh from fifty to ninetyl pounds, and obviously itis diiicult if not impossible for a workman standing to the side of theline of travel of the material to properly guide it time after time. f y

After a desired number of reductions have been effected, the sheets arepaired and the rolling is continued. lInstead of the paired sheets beingmaintained in unchanging relationship throughout the rolling operation,as is ordinarily the case, I prefer that the Workman shall so manipulatehis tongs as to cause movement of one of the sheets on the other. Whenthis is done between successive passes there is no danger of the sheetsrsticking together as frequently takes place in ordinary pack rolling.Because of the absence of stickers, a product having an improvedsurface, which is particularly valuable for automobile body sheets, isproduced. .90

In the accompanying drawings illustrating the present preferredembodiment of my invention,

Figure 1 is a top plan view of a mill sliow. ing the mill standsarranged in a straight line;

Figure 2 is a side elevation;

Figure 3 is a top plan view to enlarged scale showing the platform, thesupporting table and the stops in more detail, certain parts beingremoved for the sake of clearness F i,gure 4 is a vertical longitudinalsection taken on:the line IV-IV of Figure 3, the" stop` and itsconnections.

e present application covers broadly the method and apparatus as well asthe specific form illustrated herein.- Another form of apparatus isspeci cally described and claimed in my Patent' No. 1,786,162,'

dated Dec. 23, 1930.

The mill illustrated in the drawings comrises stands numbered 2 to 7inclusive, each iiaving its bottom roll driven through the usualconnections by a motor 8. The top rolls are undriveii.. Tables 9 extendbetween the stands, these tables being made up of side rails 10 carryingroller shafts 11. Ordinarily there will be no necessity for driving theroller shafts, particularly between' the stands where the sheets arestill relatively short, as the material will issue from a stand withsuicient velocity to travel to a point where it can be grasped by thetongs of the workman. However, if it is desired, part or all of theroller shafts may be driven. If any are driven they will ordinarily bethe ones lying adjacent the exit side of a stand. In Figure 1 only a fewof the roller shafts 11 are shown, the rest being omitted forsimplicitys sake.

A platform 12 on which a workman may stand lies over each table 9adjacent the exit side of a mill stand. Each table comprises a watercooled base 13 supported on egs 14 and having an upstanding back 15. Thefloor level is indicated by F in Figure 2 and it will be noted that theplatforms are' only a shortdistance thereabove so that a workman mayreadily step from the ioor onto his platform without danger.

As best shown in Figure 4, a heat shield in the form of an asbestossheet 16 is placed on the back 15 to protect the workman from the heatof the rolls in the adjacent stand. When the mill is in operation, hefaces to the right as the mill is viewed in Figures 1, 2 and 3, and tothe left as the mill is viewed in Figure 4. He is shielded from the heatof the rolls of the mills which he faces by a shield'l'( depending froma cross bar 18 extending between the housings. yA horizontal shield16alies between the platform 12 and the rear table 9 and extends to theface of the rolls behind the platform; As shown in Figure 4, this shieldis supported immediately below the platform 12 and is re-inforced bymetal strip. lts principal function is to conserve the heat of therolled metal passing beneath it, and to prevent cooling thereof by theplatform 12.

will not be fed into the rolls.

The rolling continues through a desired number of stands, say throughstands 2, 3, 4 and 5, and by this time the sheet bar has been suicientlyreducedjin thickness to require pairing. The'workman standing justbeyond the mill stand 5 waits for two sheets to issue from the standbehind him, pairs these and feeds them to the mill stand 6.A

The roller beyond the mill stand 6 ruiiles the pair so as to eliminateany tendency to .stick together, and then feeds the sheets to the stand7 The operation may be continued through any Idesired number of stands.i

By reason of the fact that the rollers are standing over the line oftravel of the material as it is being rolled, they are able to.

guide the sheets into the mills with a minimum of diiculty and with amaximum of accuracy. In practical operation there is sufficientvariatiorrin the sheets to require a certain amount of skill inhandling, and the workmen are in the best possible positionto applytheir skill. All the difficulties of the automatic handling schemesheretofore proposed are therefore obviated.

In order to eliminate any danger of the material being fed into a standwithout being guided by the roller, and to assist him in squa-ring upthe sheets for rolling, stops 19 are provided adjacent the entering sideof the different stands. These stops are carried on cross shafts 20,which shafts are arranged to be rotated by foot buttons 21 on theplatforms 12. The connections are shown in detail in Figures 4 and 5.Each foot button 21 extends through a thimble 22 in the platform 12 andis connected to one arm of a bell crank 23. The other arm of the bellcrank is connected to a link 24 terminating in a lever 25 on the shaft20. A spring 27 normally tends to throw the stops 19 upwardly so that solong as the workmans foot is off the button 21 the material After he hassquared the sheets and has ruilled them or given them whatever furtherattention is necessary, he depresses the button .21 and shplves thesheet -or sheets forward into the ro s.

From the foregoingit will be seen that instead of three men beingrequired on a stand, only a roller is necessary. The investment cost isonly slightly greater than in the case of an installation of ordinarytion is high because there is no loss of time as i-s the 'case where thematerial is passed back over the top roll in a hand mill, and the standscan all be operated at high speed. Ordinarily: successive stands willbe'operated at successively higher speeds to take care of the elongationof the sheet as it passes through the mill. The heavy labor required inordinary sheet rolling practice is eliminated, and the workingconditionsare'materially improved.

I have illustrated and described the present preferred embodiment of theinvention. It will be understood, however, that it is not limited to theformshown as it may be otherwise embodied or practiced within the yscopeof the following claims. r

I claim: l. In the method o f rolling sheets, the steps consisting inpassing the material through successive roll stands, mechanicallysupporting the material between stands, the material being free of astand before entering a succeeding stand, gripping the trailing end ofthe material with a hand tool, and uiding the material. into the standsby hand rom a position in substantial alinement with the line of travelof the material into las a stand. f

2. In the method of rolling sheets, the steps consisting in passing thematerial through successive roll stands, mechanically supporting thematerial between stands, the material being free of a stand beforeentering a succeeding stand, gripping the trailing end of theematerialwith a hand tool, and guiding the material -intothe ,stands by hand fromaposition' in substantial alinement with the line of travel of thematerial into a stand and above the plane of such material.

3. In the method of rolling sheets, the steps consisting in passing thematerial through successive roll stands, mechanically supporting thematerial between stands, the material being free of a stand beforeentering a succeeding stand,` presenting a stop to the advancingmaterial, squaring the material relative to the rolls in the next stand,and guiding the material into such stand by hand.

4. Apparatus for rolling sheets comprising a plurality of mills adaptedyto effect successive reductions, a table for support ing materialpassing from one mill to the next, and a workmans platform over thetable so placed that the Workman may manipulate the sheets on the tablefrom said platform.

5. Apparatus for rolling sheets comprising a plurality of mills adaptedto effect successivey reductions, a table so placed that the workman maymanipulate the sheets on the table from said platform, for supportingmaterial passing from one mill to the next, a workmans platform over thetable and means for cooling the platform.

6. In a mill for rolling sheets a table for supporting material passingto a mill stand,

and a workmans platform immediately i above the table, the platformbeing so placed that the workman may manipulate platform, and means forcooling the platform.

8. Apparatus for rolling sheets comprising a plurality of mills adaptedto effect successlve reductions, a vtable for support-` ing materialpassing from one mill to the next, a workmans platform over the table, astop for checking the movement of the advancing sheets, and means foractuating the stop from said platform.

9. Apparatus for rolling sheets comprising a` plurality of mills adaptedto effect successive reductions, a table for. supporting materialpassing from one mill to the next and extending therebetween, a workmansplatform over suoli table and lying between the mills and so placed thatthe workman may manipulate the sheets on the table from said platform,and a shield for protecting a workman on the platform from the heat ofthe rolls in a mill stand.

l0. Apparatus for rolling sheets comprising a plurality of mills adaptedto effect successive reductions, a table for supporting material passingfrom one mill to the next and extending therebetween, a workmansplatform over such-table and lying` f between the mills and lso placedthat the workman may manipulate the sheets on the table from saidplatform, and a shield to the front and to the rear of the platform forprotecting a workman on the platform,

- platform over the table so placed that the workman may manipulate thesheets on the table from said platform, and a heat shield betweentheplatform and the table.

12. Apparatus for rolling sheets comprising a plurality of mills insubstantial alinement, tables extending between the mills for supportingmaterial travelling from one mill to the next, and workmens platformsover the tables each table being'so placed that a workman thereon maymanipulate the sheets on the table from such platform. l 13. Apparatusfor rolling sheets com'v ris- 1ng a plurality of mills in substantial ainement, tables extending between the mills foi` supporting materialtravelling from one mill tothe next, and workmens platforms the sheetson the table from said platform. o i

lover the tables each table being so placed that a Workman thereon maymanipulate the sheets 011 the table from such platform, the platformsbeing adjacent the exit sides of the mills.l I

14. Apparatus for rolling sheets comprising a plurality of mills adaptedto elect successive reductions, a table for supporting material passingfrom one mill to the next, m a workmans platform over the table adjacentthe exit side of the mill, a sto adjacent the entering side of the nextmill, and means for operating the stop from the platform. 15. In themethod of rolling sheets, the steps consisting in passing the materialthrough successive roll stand's, mechanically supporting' the materialbetween stands, the material being free ofv a stand before entering asucceeding stand, gripping the trailing ends of the sheets being rolled,and thus guiding them into the stands by hand.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

z5 JULIAN KENNEDY.

